Office Business
by TwistOfLemon
Summary: Ianto will walk up to Jack's office soon. The team will have left a while ago, and Jack will be busy. But never too busy. Not Jack, not for him. Jack/Ianto, sort of, an unconventional writing experiment. S1 spoilers. Warning: depressed!Ianto within.


_Ianto will walk up to Jack's office soon. The team will have left a while ago, and Jack will be busy. But never too busy. Not Jack, not for him._

* * *

Ianto knocks on Jack's office door. Jack is on the phone. He signals for Ianto to wait for a moment, and finishes his conversation with whoever's on the other end of the line. His face is deadly serious. His eyes are hard.

He hangs up the phone, and looks up at Ianto.

"They've all gone." Ianto announces.

"Great." Jack replies. His eyes crinkle as he showcases the infamous, classic-Harkness grin.

* * *

_Ianto will not bother knocking. He will stride into the office, and sit down on Jack's desk. Jack will look up curiously. Ianto will stop the elongated silence with a kiss. _

_Jack will smile against his lips._

* * *

Jack kicks his shoes off, and begins to pull his suspenders from his own shoulders. Ianto takes off his jacket, and folds it neatly. He then unlaces his shoes, puts them equidistance apart to the right of the desk, rolls his socks and puts them inside the shoes.

"In here today, sir?"

"Yeah." Jack grins again. "Yeah, I think so."

* * *

_The kiss will grow deeper as the minutes grow longer. Eventually, Ianto will break the kiss, for a moment, his hand spread across Jack's back, his head slightly above. He will let his eyebrows twitch upward. Jack will laugh._

"_Here?"_

"_Why not?"_

"_Well, can you handle it?"_

* * *

Jack's shirt is gone now. He's unzipping his fly.

Ianto, on the other and, has only just finished folding his tie. He can see why – Jack's clothes are simply a crumpled mess on the floor. His, on the other hand, are neatly stacked on one edge of the desk.

It gives Ianto a little twisted pleasure to see how eager Jack is. It makes him feel for a moment as though he has some power.

The idea is laughable, of course.

* * *

_Jack takes the coat off himself – he'll always be rather protective of it – but he'll let Ianto do the rest. Slowly, steadily. _

_Their torsos will be close to touching. _

_Jack, entirely naked, will snort, and begin to undress Ianto. _

_Their hands will be so close to touching. _

_His clothes will fall to the floor unceremoniously, lying on top of Jack's. _

_They won't be able to stand it. They'll touch. They'll more than touch._

* * *

Jack's naked. He looks good naked, there's no denying it. It's all there.

Ianto's naked. He wonders vaguely how he looks.

Jack calls for him, and Ianto goes across to him.

Always does as he says.

* * *

_There will be silence… stretching for ages, maybe hours. Neither will say anything. Neither will have to._

* * *

There's not much in between undressing and what it is they're waiting for. Why should there be? They're not exactly going about it in the most romantic way.

* * *

_It's to be all about them, that night. The laughs, the curses, the sighs, the raised eyebrows… it will be there because they both want it._

_And they'll both get it, quite a few times._

* * *

Jack is done quickly.

Not too quickly, of course. Never too quickly. A man with as much experience as Jack would never lose control that easily, least of all with the office teaboy.

After that, it's done. Well, Jack is done, and therefore they are finished.

* * *

_They will both know it's over when one of them speaks. That person, on this occasion, will be Ianto._

"_We should be in here more often," he will say, "You were good."_

_He'll reach down for his clothes, and only then realise that they are unfolded, and probably crinkled, too. He'll frown, and try to flatten the creases with his hands._

"_Aren't I always?" Jack will ask. Ianto will raise his eyebrows, and Jack will shake his head, as though it's an absurdity that this could ever be true._

* * *

"I suppose I should go, sir." Ianto says. Jack grins.

"Yeah, if you must," he agrees. "I need you early tomorrow. We all need your coffee to wake ourselves up, after all."

Ianto tries to smile.

"Best coffee this side of the Rift." He says icily. He doesn't mean for it to come out hostile, it just happens. Anyway, Jack doesn't notice.

"Thanks for this." says Jack.

* * *

"_I suppose I should go." Ianto will say. His trousers will be on by this time. He'll be fastening his belt._

"_Oh, don't go yet…" Jack will pout. He won't bother with any clothes himself, but will simply lean across the desk, entirely naked._

"_Got to be here early tomorrow," Ianto will explain, "You may not know what you're all like without my coffee, but I do." He'll roll his eyes. "Don't know what you ever did without me."_

_Jack will grin._

"_I had sex with people in pubs at random, and the more attractive aliens. Don't go."_

"_Why?"_

"_You look good in pants."_

"_Yes, I generally wear them. You should try it sometime."_

_Jack's eyebrows will come down in confusion._

"_To be taken literally, or shot at my lack of masculinity in the relationship?"_

_Ianto's stomach will flutter of it's own accord. He'll turn red, rather embarrassed at the fairly puerile reaction. But, well, Jack will never have referred to it as a relationship before. _

_Still, he'll realise then that it's what they've become. A relationship. They will go out to dinner together, alone, kiss, spend the night in each other's beds…_

_They will love each other. _

* * *

'Thanks for this'? Who thanks someone after… after… Ianto hates the word… sex?

Ianto grimaces internally. He hates that word. 'Sex' sounds crude, and vulgar, and unjust. Like something that isn't pleasant. Like something you shouldn't be doing. Like something wrong.

And to him, it has always been making love; excluding Jack, of course. He's always loved – and been loved, mostly – everyone he's slept with… his high school girlfriend, his college girlfriend, Lisa…

Lisa.

Suddenly, Ianto is furious. He wants to punch Jack, to tackle him to the ground and beat him to pieces.

Jack killed her.

And he killed that safety net that he'd had with her; that beautiful relationship that was always there. That one that was spontaneous, romantic, and wonderfully, insanely right.

And Ianto realises that it's not Lisa the person that he misses the most, not anymore. He misses the trust and openness he had with her, the feeling he always had in his gut that it would be alright in the end because she was his, and he was hers…

And he wants to punch Jack, to tackle him to the ground and beat him to pieces. And he wants to kiss him, and be kissed, and collapse in his arms, and be held, and be told that everything's alright.

But it's not.

* * *

_They will be kissing again._

_Ianto won't know how it happened. He'll assume it was the way Jack's eyebrows had raised, almost of their own accord, as he'd been hunting for his shoes. Things will have lead themselves along from there, supposedly._

_Ianto will reluctantly slow the kiss, eventually bringing it to a complete stop. He'll break facial contact, but leave a hand on Jack's arm._

"_I should… go." He will say._

_Jack will roll his eyes, and agree resolutely._

"_It'd better be damn good coffee, though." He'll mutter._

"_Always is." Ianto will say. He'll kiss Jack. Again._

* * *

"Part of my job, sir." Ianto finally responds, doing up the last of his buttons.

There's an awkward silence.

* * *

_They'll break apart. Jack will draw breath, and Ianto will be able to tell that Jack is about to say something that embarrasses him._

"_I love you, Ianto."_

* * *

"I'd better get pack to work, if you're off. Some aliens never sleep."

* * *

"_I love you, Jack."_

* * *

"I suppose they're like you then."

* * *

"_Yeah. Rightly, too."_

* * *

"What?"

* * *

"_Hmm…"_

* * *

"Well, you never sleep."

* * *

_Jack will chuckle quietly._

* * *

"Yeah, I guess."

* * *

_They will kiss just one last time. A quick peck can mean so much. Especially with Captain Jack Harkness._

_Except it can't. Not this one. Because it's not real, none of it. There's no love, no safety, no truth. And there never will be. Just cold, hard, apparently meaningless sex with the boss._

* * *

And Ianto stares upon the man who'll never love him. And he smiles awkwardly.

"Right. Bye, then. Sir."

And Jack looks at him… and it's real, and it's here, and it's now, and it's never going to change.

But it's… nothing. There's nothing in reality. And Jack's gaze just skims through Ianto, oblivious to him in what must be overcompensation, closure… _something._ And then Jack grins once more, and Ianto feels like there's nothing he can hide.

"Yeah. Goodnight, Ianto."

* * *

_If only._


End file.
